56 O^U ADRUPEDS. 



cubs, with the eyes clofed; the dam fuckles them fome weeks, and 

 teaches them betimes to eat flefh, which (he prepares for them, by 

 chewing it firfl: herfelf. Some time after (he brings them ftronger food, 

 hares^ partridges, and birds yet alive. The young wolves begin by 

 playing with them, and end by killing them. The dam then ftrips 

 them of their feathers, tears them in pieces, and diftributes them. They 

 do not leave the den till they are fix weeks or two months old. When 

 they are about ten or twelve months old, have fhed their firft teeth, and 

 completed the new, fhe thinks them able to fhift for r.hemfelves. 

 She hides the place of her retreat from the male, left he (liould devour 

 her cubs. 



The wolf grows grey by age, and his teeth wear by ufing. He 

 lleeps when fatisfied or fatigued, rather by day than night j and always 

 is very eafily waked. He drinks frequently ; though very voracious, 

 fupports hunger for a long time, and often lives four or five days with- 

 out food, provided he be fupplied with water; to allay hunger will eat 

 mud. He carries off a fheep in his mouth without letting it touch the 

 ground, and runs with it much fwifter than the fhepherds who purfuc 

 him ; fo that only the dogs can overtake and oblige him to quit his prey. 

 He bites cruelly, always with greater vehemence in proportion as he is 

 leaft refifted ; for he ufes precautions where he meets defence. He is 

 ever cowardly, and never fights but by neceffity. "When wounded by a 

 bullet, he fcreams ; yet, when furrounded by the peafants, and attack- 

 ed with clubs, he defends himfelf in filence, and dies as hard as he 

 lived. 



He travels, runs, and plunders, days and nights together; is inde- 

 fatigable ; and perhaps of all animals the moft difficult to be hunted 

 down. If caught in a pit-fall, he is for fome time fo frightened and 

 aftonifhed, that he may be killed, or taken alive, without much danger; 

 may be collared, muzzled, and dragged along fafely. At all other times 

 he has his fenfes in great perfedion ; his eye, his ear, and (pardcularly) 

 his fmelling. He fmells a carcafe at more than a league's diftancc. 

 When he leaves the wood, he takes care to go out againft the wind ; 

 at its extremity, he examines, by his fmell, on all fides, emanations of 

 his enemy or his prey, which he nicely diftinguiflies. He prefers ani- 

 mals which he kills himfelf, to thofe he finds dead; yet he does not dif- 

 dain thefe when without better. He is particularly fond of human flefh, 

 and perhaps, were he fufficiently powerful, would eat no other. Gefner 

 tells us of a friar, a woman, and a wolf, being taken in a pit-fail in 



the 



